Friday 23 August 2013

ORCA - the Organisation of Really Contrived Acronyms

The obvious, though possibly not best, acronym to kick things off is ORCA itself:

ORCA:
The Organisation of Really Contrived Acronyms.
orca noun any of various whales, esp. the killer whale.

organisation noun
a group of people formed into a society, union, or especially business.

really adv.
very; genuinely

contrived adj.
forced or artificial.

acronym noun
a word made from the first letters or syllables of other words.

ORCA was founded in 2004 by Rich Edwards, then a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Prof Denis Shields at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. I’m not sure now where these definitions come from (possibly OED online) but I have decided to stick with the original 2004 definitions. The term “Organisation” is a bit of a stretch but then these are contrived acronyms.

ORCA is an ad hoc acronym - until we discover that cetaceans are prolific abbreviators, at least. (Who knows what those clicks and whistles mean‽)

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